Haiti – Here Comes the Rain Again

Two nights ago I was awakened by something wet hitting my feet, which were sticking out of my tent trying to keep cool (at the expense of getting consumed by mosquitoes). It was raining, and raining hard. I quickly zipped everything up and stayed relatively dry. Not so for hundreds of thousands of Haitians living on the streets and in tent cities. Many of those people woke up soaking in ankle deep mud, with everything that they own, themselves included, totally drenched.

This is just the start of a months-long rainy season, and the start of a whole new wave of troubles for a people still deeply affected by the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Here are a few images from the day after the rain, as well as life in one of Haiti’s poorer areas – the Solino Slum.

In the Solino Slum area in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, a tent city that houses hundreds of homeless families fills with mud after the first rain since the January 12, 2010 earthquke. February 18, 2010.

Life in Solino, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. February 18, 2010.

Jesus is Lord, written on the inside of the front wall of the partially destroyed home of Naiki Docile, 6. The family sleeps outside each night for fear of being buried in their home if a strong aftershock should strike. Port-au-Prince, Haiti. February 18, 2010.

A few Haitian coins collect sunlight inside the tent of Jacques Kervens, 8, and his mother, Amecelia Pierre, 40, who survived the January 12, 2010 earthquake that severly damaged their home, making it unfit and unsafe to live in. Solino Slum, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. February 16, 2010.

Ferlandie Fadius, 19, undergoes a CT scan on her head. She was severely affected by the earthquake. When rescuers freed her from the concrete pinning her head down, the had to first remove her dead cousin, who was pinned across her lap. Port-au-Prince, Haiti. February 16, 2010.